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Happy Thursday, Folks!

It was so nice of y'all to come visit me on a non-posting day!

Really, the fact that you would come all the way over here just to see me makes me feel all warm and fuzzy :)  You are all so sweet!

Can I offer you some refreshments?  Forgive me for being a little unprepared - I wasn't expecting company today - but please, help yourselves to coffee and donuts!

Everybody got something?  Good!  Let's get comfy and settle in for a nice chat!

I have a scintillating story to tell you about the smell in our bathroom wall.

No!  Not that kind of smell!

What happened was this:

On Saturday, we lit a fire in the fireplace for the first time this fall.  No sooner did the chimney heat up then a dreadful odor began to pervade the house!  We traced it to the upstairs bathroom wall which, oddly enough, does not touch the chimney.

You would really think that in order for a smell to be coaxed out of the wall it would have to be quite near the heat source, but apparently this is not the case, because the bathroom wall is not anywhere near the chimney, but there was no doubt about the smell.

Ah, the mysteries of architecture!

But wait.  Where was I?

Oh, yeah.  The dreadful odor...

So there we were, enjoying our first cozy fire of the season, when this ghastly smell nearly knocked us flat.  Obviously it was imperative that we discover the cause...

What?

You don't care about the dreadful odor in my bathroom wall?

I think you should at least pretend, seeing as how you're my guests and I gave you donuts!

You're only here for the donuts and the what?

You want results?

What kind of results?

And who's to say I have them?  I may have been incapacitated by the decomposing bat (yes, that's what was causing the dreadful odor, since clearly I'm not going to get to finish telling my story...!)

But really, a decomposing bat is a pretty appropriate item to have found right before announcing. . .





(But wait!  Before I announce, do you want to see pictures of the decomposing bat?

No?  You're sure?

Alrighty then.  Don't say I never offered you anything :))

As you are all aware by now, we had a record turnout for the Halloweensie Contest - 132 entries!  Holy Halloweensie!  Who'd-a-thunk it?

I was thrilled beyond measure to see so many wonderful stories and meet so many new writers!

But with large entry numbers come hard choices.  My assistant judges and I worked hard to winnow the total down to a manageable number of finalists that we felt were truly all-around deserving of that distinction, and those were the ones we presented to you on Monday for your vote.

There were, however, many other entries that were outstanding in certain areas even though they might not have qualified all-around for one reason or another (one reason being that, at a certain point, we just had to stop adding finalists to the list! :))

So my assistant judges and I would like to award recognition and a small prize to the following authors for the following merits:

1.  For Honorable Mention In The Competition As A Whole:
     Susan Halko for The Contest
     Mishka Jaeger for The Poag's Revenge
     Julie Abery for Orinda Owl's First Halloween
   
2.  For Great Kid Appeal: (not already in the finals)
     Marla Lesage for At Grandma's House Last Halloween (which was also delightfully spooky!)
     Marty McCormick for Winnie's Spell
     Christie Allred for Petie Pumpkin And The Stinky Halloween
     Teresa M.I. Schaefer for The Best Pumpkin
     Marlaina Gray for Lolly Is Scary
     Tracie Percival for The Misspelled Witch
     Vivian Kirkfield for A Night Of Friendship For Miss Witch

3.  For Best Descriptive/Mood Piece:
     Carol (whose last name I'm sorry I don't know!) for Halloween Night
     Mandy Yates for On This Night

4.  For Best Use of Poetic Language:
     Penny Klostermann for HG (Haunted and Ghostly) TV Ex-Scream Makeover Ghost Edition

5. For Spookiest Entry: (not already in the finals)
     Eric Hammond for The Scarecrow
     Michelle Valencia for The Halloween Sneer
     Jean James for Trick Or Treat?
     Alistair Lane for The Raven And The Pumpkin
     
6.  For Sweetest/Cutest Entry: (not already in the finals)
     Anne Bromley for The Pumpkin Patch Scarecrow (sweet)
     Jennifer Wesselink for Five Silly Monsters (cute)
     Ellen Leventhal for Emma's Evening Ride (cute)

7.  For Saddest Ending:
     Nancy Hatch for It's Time To Fly

8.  For Best Written Original Point of View:
     Victoria Aranda for Creaks (written from the POV of a haunted house)
   
9.  For Excellence In Depicting Sibling Relationships:
     Carrie Charley Brown for Prankenstein
     Kimberly Cowger for First Flight of Halloween
     Joanne Sher for Dumb Jack-'O-Lanterns

10.  For Originality/Creativity:
     Jen Garrett for How To Carve A Pumpkin

11.  For Favorite Character:
       Pat Tilton for her "gutsy witch" who "slammed the ghost with her sack of candy" in Little Ghost :)

12.  For Best Group Entry:
       Susanne Leach and her First Grade Class for Sweetsie's Jack-O-Lantern*

Congratulations to all of you for fantastic elements of your stories!  You may all email me at susanna[at]susannahill[dot]com to collect your prize, which is your choice of one of the following: (the titles are all links so you can go see what they're about)

For Kindle:
Picture Books: The Write Way by Laura Salas and Lisa Bullard OR

The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide To Character Expression by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi , OR

The Postitive Trait Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide To Character Attributes by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi, OR

The Negative Trait Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide To Character Flaws by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi, OR

In paperback:
Show & Tell In A Nutshell: Demonstrated Transitions From Telling To Showing by Jessica Bell, OR

Creating Extraordinary Characters by Angela Hunt, OR

Evoking Emotion by Angela Hunt

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Holy Jack-O-Lanterns, Batman!

Look at me!  A mere shadow of my former self!

A pumpkin who has fallen off her creaky broomstick!

Wrung out and harrowed after an entire weekend of trying to decide how to rank the incredible entries y'all submitted for Halloweensie 2014.  What a job!!!

It's a miracle I'm even here to tell the tale!

Thank goodness for the sustaining chocolate provided (via Face Book) by Joanna and Kathy :)  Thank you both, from the bottom of my chocolate-loving heart!  (And no, they did not receive "special consideration" for their entries as a result - they are both just lovely people who didn't want me or my assistant judges to keel over :))

And speaking of the assistant judges, I had to call in a fourth!  I'm not kidding!

Because here's the deal: we had the biggest turn out we've ever had in terms of number of entries - 132! - and the overall quality of the entries was fantastic.  Really, it is readily apparent that the quality of entries in these contests is improving every time.  This means there are fewer standouts, almost none that are easy to cut, and there a LOT of pretty good ones that we have to get very nit-picky over!  It is agony, I tell you!

Before we get to the actual list of finalists, I have a couple things to say.  (I know you're shocked :))

First of all, I want to thank EVERYONE who took the time and care to write an entry for this contest.   You all did a fabulous job and provided great enjoyment for many!

Second, I'd also like to thank EVERYONE - writer, reader, or both - who took the time to go around and read as many entries as you could and leave supportive comments.  This means so much to the writers who worked hard on their stories.  It helps them see what they did well, as well as giving them the joy of knowing that their stories were read and enjoyed.  I hope you all got as much delight  and entertainment out of the reading as I did!  Plus, we got to meet quite a few new people which was a wonderful added bonus! :)

Third, before I list the finalists, I want to say again how difficult it was too choose!  There were so many amazing entries.  Really.  I could find at least something terrific about every single one.  The sheer volume of entries meant that many good ones had to be cut.  So if yours didn't make the final cut please don't feel bad.  There was a huge amount of competition.  Judging, no matter how hard we try to be objective, is always subjective at a certain point - we all have our own preferences for what makes a great story.  And the fact that you didn't make the final cut DOES NOT mean you didn't write a great story.  Everyone who plonked their butt in a chair and worked hard to write a story for this contest is a winner!  You showed up.  You did your best work.  You practiced your craft.  You wrote to specifications and a deadline.  You bravely shared your writing with the world.  And you have a brand new story that is now yours to expand beyond 100 words if you like and maybe submit at some point to a magazine or as a PB manuscript.  So bravo to everyone who entered!

Now.  Onto the judging criteria which were as follows:
1. Kid-appeal! - These stories are intended for a young audience, so entries that were well-written but lacked child-friendliness did not make the cut.
2.  Halloweeniness - the rules stated a Halloween story, so entries that failed to mention anything Halloween-y did not make the cut even if they were well-written.
3. Quality of story - the rules stated that entries were to tell a story, so if they appeared to be more of a description or mood piece, they didn't make the cut.  We looked for a true story arc.
4. Quality of Writing: we took note of spelling, grammar, punctuation etc.  In addition, for the rhymers, we looked at rhyme and meter (for which we are sticklers!)  We also looked at overall writing quality and use of language.
5. Originality and creativity - because that is often what sets one story above another.

This time around, 5 entries sadly had to be cut because of rule problems: one was 3 words over the word limit (I counted 6 times, by hand and with Microsoft Word's word count tool, because it was otherwise a strong entry! but 131 other people managed to stay at 100 or under so I had to be strict!); two used "broom" but not "broomstick"; and 2 did not use "creak" in any form.  (And yes, I checked the word count on all 132 entries and made sure the required words were present.)

After that, the going really got tough.  Some of the stronger stories were written in rhyme where the meter didn't work as well as it needed to.  Some of the most beautiful rhyming entries with great use of language were more mood pieces than stories.  So we had to make some very hard calls.

Without further ado, I present to you the 2014 Halloweensie Contest Finalists.  A baker's dozen - 13 for Halloween! :)  A mix of poetry and prose, stories for younger readers and slightly older (but still kid) readers, funny, spooky, and cute.  Please read through them carefully, take your time, think it over, and vote for your favorite.  To help with objectivity, finalists are listed by title only, not by author.

And I'd like to be very clear about the voting process.  You are MOST welcome to share a link to this post on FB, twitter, or wherever you like to hang out, and encourage people to come read ALL the finalists and vote for the one they think is best.  Please do that.  The more people who read and enjoy these stories the better, and the more objective votes we get the better.  HOWEVER (and I want to be very clear on this) please do not ask people to vote for a specific number or title, or for the story about the pumpkin ballerina or whatever.  Trolling for votes or trying to influence the outcome is counter to the spirit of this competition which is supposed to be based on merit.  I thank you in advance for respecting this.

#1 Halloween SMS (Short Messaging Scariness)



#2 Creaky Cackle

#3 Full Moon Rising

#4 Home Alone Halloween
I came home from school very excited. Halloween, my favorite day of the year.


#5 Sulky Spider's Spooky Webs

#6 This Year's Halloween Mascot

#7 Halloween Chase

#8 Halloween Hide-and-Go-Seek
It’s Halloween! It’s dark, it’s spooky, it’s perfect for a game of Halloween Hide-and-Go-Seek!
Blurp! Bloop! Blub!
Are you in the cauldron?
No, just some toadstool stew.
Rustle! Swish! Swoosh!
Are you in the closet?
No, just an old broomstick.
Creak! Crack! Bang!
Are you behind the curtains?
No, it’s just the wind blowing the windows open and closed.
Scritch! Scratch! Raow!
Are you behind the chair?
No, just the cat settling down.
Giggle, Giggle
Are you upstairs?
Sssshhhhhhh!
Are you in the bedroom?
Hmmmmm.
Boo!
There are my little pumpkins!
You’ve had your trick, now how about your treat?

#9 The Shadow
#10 Halloween In A Box

Now that you've had a chance to read through the finalists, please vote for the entry you feel deserves to win in the poll below by 5PM EST Wednesday November 5.

2014 Halloweensie Contest FinalistsTune in Thursday November 6 to see THE WINNERS!!!

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Tiger eye and mandrake root!  It's finally time for

courtesy google images

The Contest:  write a 100 word Halloween story appropriate for children (title not included in the 100 words), using the words pumpkin, broomstick, and creak.   Your story can be poetry or prose, scary, funny or anything in between, but it will only count for the contest if it includes those 3 words and is 100 words (you can go under, but not over!)  Get it?  Halloweensie - because it's not very long and it's for little people :)  (And yes, I know 100 words is short but that's part of the fun and the challenge!  We got nearly 80 fantastic entries last year so I know you can do it!)  Also, you may use the words in any form - e.g. creak, creaky, creaks, creaking, creaked.  No illustration notes please!

Post your story on your blog between right now this very second and Friday October 31st by 11:59 PM EDT and add your post-specific link to the list below.  There will be no Would You Read It Wednesday or Perfect Picture Book Friday this week, so this post and the list of links will stay up all week for everyone to enjoy.  (I hope you will all visit each other! :))  If you don't have a blog and would like to enter, you can simply copy and paste your entry in the comments section below. (Or, if you have difficulty with the comments, which unfortunately sometimes happens, you may email your entry to me and I'll post it for you!)

The Judging: in a grueling, marathon weekend, my lovely assistants and I will narrow down the entrants to 3 top choices (hee hee hee - okay, who are we kidding? :)) which will be posted here and voted on for a winner on Monday November 3rd.  The winner will be announced in a special Thursday post on November 6th.  If we get more than 20 entries, I will post 6 finalists and give prizes for 1st through 3rd.  If by some chance we get the kind of turn out we did last year, all bets are off.  I may post as many as 10 finalists and I'll probably end up giving everyone a prize :)  But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it :)

The Prizes:  we've got some seriously amazing prizes! (words in color are links to more info)

- Julie Hedlund's fantastic new course How To Make Money As An Author, interesting, educational and suitable for writers at any stage of their career

 - a 2015 membership to Children's Book Insider, an absolutely fabulous resource for kid lit writers of all kinds, generously offered by Jon Bard and Laura Backes

 - a picture book manuscript critique from the renowned Alayne Christian (prose only, 800 words or less)
Alayne Kay Christian is an award winning author of BUTTERFLY KISSES FOR GRANDMA AND GRANDPA. She is represented by Erzsi Deak of Hen&Ink Literary Studio. To read more about Alayne, her critique service, and her books visit her websites and blog.

- a picture book manuscript critique (rhyme or prose) from Penny Parker Klostermann who, after extensive experience critiquing for writing partners, members of various kid lit groups, and clients of Erin Murphy Literary Agency, is opening her own critique service!!!
Website: www.traceymcox.com
Blog: www.traceymcox.wordpress.com
 - an e-pub or PDF copy (winner's choice) of Linda Ashman's Nuts And Bolts Guide To Writing Picture Books

 - a personalized signed copy of I WANNA GO HOME by Karen Kaufman Orloff, the latest in the brilliant PB series that began with I WANNA IGUANA. (Reviewed HERE for PPBF)

 - a personalized signed copy of I AM COW HEAR ME MOO by Jill Esbaum (reviewed for Perfect Picture Books HERE and HERE - yep, it's so popular it got reviewed for PPBF twice :))

 - a personalized signed copy of NINJA RED RIDING HOOD by Corey Rosen Schwartz, the riveting follow-up to THE THREE NINJA PIGS.  (Reviewed HERE for PPBF)

 - a PDF copy of Ryan Sias's A Spooky-Doodle E-Book, "doodle pages, drawing lessons and writing prompts inspire kids to invent their own stories, characters and artwork."

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Darlings!

I was going to be so succinct and just get right to Would You Read It today, and you were going to be so proud of me for my extreme brevity... I had it all planned out...

BUT!

I have to squeeze in a teensy Halloweensie Contest update!!!

Remember how I told you that the prizes kept rolling in?

Here's what our goody bag of prizes looks like now!

- Julie Hedlund's fantastic new course How To Make Money As An Author, interesting, educational and suitable for writers at any stage of their career

 - a 2015 membership to Children's Book Insider, an absolutely fabulous resource for kid lit writers of all kinds generously offered by Jon Bard and Laura Backes

 - a picture book manuscript critique from the renowned Alayne Christian (prose only, 800 words or less)
Alayne Kay Christian is an award winning author of BUTTERFLY KISSES FOR GRANDMA AND GRANDPA. She is represented by Erzsi Deak of Hen&Ink Literary Studio. To read more about Alayne, her critique service, and her books visit her websites and blog.

- a picture book manuscript critique (rhyme or prose) from Penny Parker Klostermann who, after extensive experience critiquing for writing partners, members of various kid lit groups, and clients of Erin Murphy Literary Agency, is opening her own critique service!!!

Website: www.traceymcox.com
Blog: www.traceymcox.wordpress.com
 - an e-pub or PDF copy (winner's choice) of Linda Ashman's Nuts And Bolts Guide To Writing Picture Books

 - a personalized signed copy of I WANNA GO HOME by Karen Kaufman Orloff, the latest in the brilliant PB series that began with I WANNA IGUANA.

 - a personalized signed copy of I AM COW HEAR ME MOO by Jill Esbaum (reviewed for Perfect Picture Books HERE and HERE - yep, it's so popular it got reviewed for PPBF twice :))

 - a personalized signed copy of NINJA RED RIDING HOOD by Corey Rosen Schwartz, the riveting follow-up to THE THREE NINJA PIGS.

 - a PDF copy of Ryan Sias's A Spooky-Doodle E-Book, "doodle pages, drawing lessons and writing prompts inspire kids to invent their own stories, characters and artwork."

And I'd like to clarify (because I got asked) that people who donate prizes are still eligible to enter the contest!  Just, if they win, I won't give them their own prize :)

And that is 10 prizes now, all very generously donated!  So I'm hoping we'll get at least 10 entries :)

Okay!  Now back to our regularly scheduled programing.  (Brevity is overrated anyway... :))

Since I know you're all revved up at the prospect of all those amazing prizes, and are going to run right off to your favorite writing corner and get to work on your entries as soon as you've commented for today's WYRI pitcher, let me fortify you with a little Something Chocolate! :)

Since Halloween is coming, it's important that we embrace the occasion in our chocolate snacks.  Today (don't be scared!) we have Spooky Boo Brownies!!!

Find the recipe HERE if you want to give these scary delights a try! :)

Oooh!  So spooky! . . . and chocolatey and delicious :)

Now then, today's pitch comes to us from Debbie who says, "I have been writing all my life but have been more serious about it in the last 5 years, joining groups like SCBWI and Julie Hedlund’s 12 X 12, taking courses like MPBM (Making Picture Book Magic), and attending conferences. Susanna’s knowledge, generosity, and encouragement make this group essential to my writing life. Thank you, Susanna! And thank you all in advance for your feedback."

(Debbie's website will be up soon, and when it is, I'll let you know where to find her! :))

Here is her pitch:

Working Title: Your Friend, Conrad
Age/Genre: Picture Book (ages 4-8)
The Pitch: Conrad receives an invitation to visit his best friend Fiona. She tells him he’ll need to bring a sword, a bow and arrow, and … exactly ten marshmallows?! Conrad bravely sets out not knowing that the path will lead him into a leaky boat, past pesky ravens, through prickly brambles, and to the edge of a moat where a sweets-loving dragon lurks in the deep. Will this unlikely hero have the wits (and enough marshmallows) to make it to Fiona’s front door?

So what do you think?  Would You Read It?  YES, MAYBE or NO?

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Happy Monday, everyone!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend!

Last week I told you I had something exciting to tell you today and I do!

Are you ready?

dddddrrrrruuuuummmmmrrrrrooooollllllllll!!!!!

This week . . .

. . .

. . . Stop & Shop bath tissue is on sale for $.75 off!!!

I know!  It's not every day you get such incredible news!

So bring the van and load up, alrighty?  I knew you'd want to know!

Okey-dokey, then.

Thanks for stopping by.

I hope you all have a Marvelous Monday :)

See you on Wednesday for Would You Read It.

Bye.

Buh-bye now.

Bye! :)

Oh, but wait.  I guess there was one more thing. . .

Apparently I'm becoming very nice in my old age, because here it is, only October 6, with a full 3 weeks to go, and I'm announcing. . .

courtesy google images

The Contest:  write a 100 word Halloween story appropriate for children (title not included in the 100 words), using the words pumpkin, broomstick, and creak.   Your story can be scary, funny or anything in between, poetry or prose, but it will only count for the contest if it includes those 3 words (you can count candy corn as one word) and is 100 words (you can go under, but not over!)  Get it?  Halloweensie - because it's not very long and it's for little people :)  (And yes, I know 100 words is short but that's part of the fun and the challenge!  We got nearly 80 fantastic entries last year so I know you can do it!)  Also, you may use the words in any form - e.g. creak, creaky, creaks, creaking, creaked.

Post your story on your blog between 12:00 AM EDT Monday October 27th and Friday October 31st by 11:59 PM EDT and add your post-specific link to the list that will accompany my October 27th post.  There will be no Would You Read It that week, and no PPBF, so the post and the list of links will stay up all week for everyone to enjoy.  If you don't have a blog and would like to enter, you can simply copy and paste your entry in the comments section of that post once it's up. (Or, if you have difficulty with the comments, which unfortunately sometimes happens, you may email your entry to me and I'll post it for you!)

The Judging: in a grueling, marathon weekend, my lovely assistants and I will narrow down the entrants to 3 top choices (hee hee hee - you know how much trouble I have with only 3, so we'll see) which will be posted here and voted on for a winner on Monday November 3rd.  The winner will be announced in a special Thursday post on November 6th.  If we get more than 20 entries, I will post 6 finalists and give prizes for 1st through 3rd.  If by some chance we get the kind of turn out we did last year, all bets are off.  I may post as many as 10 finalists and I'll probably end up giving everyone a prize :)  But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it :)

The Prizes:  yeah... I'm still working on the prizes :)  Feel free to chime in in the comments if there's something you'd particularly like to win! :)  But prizes will include:
 - Julie Hedlund's fantastic new course How To Make Money As An Author, interesting, educational and suitable for writers at any stage of their career,
 - a 2015 membership to Children's Book Insider, an absolutely fabulous resource for kid lit writers of all kinds generously offered by Jon Bard and Laura Backes,
 - a picture book manuscript critique from the renowned Alayne Christian (prose only, 800 words or less),
 - an e-pub or PDF copy (winner's choice) of Linda Ashman's Nuts And Bolts Guide To Writing Picture Books.
 - a PDF copy of Ryan Sias's A Spooky-Doodle E-Book, "doodle pages, drawing lessons and writing prompts inspire kids to invent their own stories, characters and artwork." 

Plus whatever else I dream up in the meantime :)

I hope those fantabulous prizes fill you with enthusiasm for the contest!

So sharpen your pencils!

Get your butt in that chair!

See what amazing, knock-your-socks-off story you can dream up!

It's a chance to hone your writing skills, practice your craft, write to specifications and a deadline, win amazing prizes, AND get to read and enjoy the wonderful stories written by all your fellows :)

Many thanks to Julie, Jon and Laura, Alayne, Linda, and Ryan for their very generous prize offerings!

I literally cannot wait to read your stories!!! :)

Now, for real, have a Marvelous Monday everyone! :)

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